The group Friends of the Park, which recently pitched a successful legal effort that led Star Wars director George Lucas to scuttle plans to build a museum on the city’s lakefront, says it concluded that it doesn’t have legal standing to stop the Obama library from being built on the city parkland. His wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, was born and raised on the South Side. The South Side is home to the University of Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry as well as businesses, but many neighborhoods are plagued by poverty and crime.
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The Obama Foundation executives, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and several aldermen cheered this addition to Jackson Park and to the South Side of Chicago. “With its aesthetics, iconic location, historical relevance from the World’s Fair, we believe Jackson Park will attract visitors on a national and global level that will bring significant long-term benefits to the South Side”.
It’s been announced the Obama Presidential Center will be located in Jackson Park, in the heart of South Side, Chicago.
The group did, however, urge those involved in the Obama library project to find ways to offset environmental impacts or loss of green space to the Jackson Park area. He also promised economic development for the entire area, not just around Jackson Park.
The Rev. Leon Finney, president of the Woodlawn Community Development Corporation, and Jacky Grimshaw, vice president for policy of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, talk about the hopes and concerns local residents feel about the center’s future impact with host Eddie Arruza.
Jackson Park was home to the 1893 World’s Fair.
However, Kamin describes the Jackson Park location for the presidential library and museum as potentially “crammed” and a challenge for architects due to its narrowness.
The Obama project – which will include a library for the president’s archives, a museum and the Obama Foundation’s offices – will require some bulldozing of open space during construction.
The Obamas picked Jackson Park over Washington Park, but the foundation’s release said both parks were conceived by architect Frederick Law Olmsted as one park, joined by the Midway, and both would benefit from the presidential center.
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The Obamas announced last month that the library would be designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, a NY architectural firm that designed the David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago.
